Chapter 1 Dropped in the Unknown
An opening in a forest,
The tree's leaves were a vibrant green coupled with the fluffy clouds partly covering the bright blue sky, and anyone, especially someone not accustomed to it would describe the view as,
"Beautiful"
His voice was young, belonging to someone in the mid to late teens, he wore leather armor, had a sword connected to the belt on his waist, and in his left hand a duffel bag.
Ren held up his hand, unblemished, the sickly pale skin contrasted the warm sunshine that enveloped it,
Slowly pushing his body up he stared around only to find trees for as far as the eye could see,
"I transmigrated… again.."
The situation was both clear in familiarity yet far from what he knew, Ren had transmigrated into another world but this wasn't the first time this happened,
In fact it was his second time being dropped off in the unknown,
"No… the last life was less transmigration and more reincarnation…"
In his last life memories gradually appeared as he lived through it eventually retrieving all his memories at a certain point, compared to the last life he,
"I don't know anything…"
Who he was, where he was, when this was, why he was here, and lastly….what he was.
'How ominous…'
Playing with his hair Ren shook his head while chuckling, he stared back at the sun for a couple of moments before squinting, his eyes feeling irritation.
"Ah.. you can't look at it for long huh?"
His mind drifted towards his memories from Earth, his first life, and how that world had a sun that rose and fell every single day.
If a person came from Earth they would understand it clearly, but what Ren had experienced in his second life is what caused him to react in such a way,
'The Abyss…'
Like some cliche web novel he was sent into a world from the game he got into called Chronicles of Terra, unfortunately for Ren it was a,
'Soulslike game'
With hellish bosses, a dreadfully apocalyptic world he wasn't even given a chance to rest having to fight everyday in order to survive.
'I wasn't even on the hardest difficulty of the game.'
Instead it was even worst, Ren had been transported into the game during the bad ending thus was the reason it was called the 'Abyss' instead of 'Terra' from the game's story,
After being screwed over in such a monumental way, fighting literal gods, swimming in volcanoes, and sky diving without a parachute, he was much more grateful for the peaceful view he had in front of him.
Like how one would be grateful for toilets or running water after traveling in the wild, he found the sun and its warmth so much more beautiful and comforting after going through hell in the Abyss.
"I… shouldn't look too much."
'In any case, I've been given another chance, I really thought I was done for after that fight…'
In his previous life in a world called the 'Abyss', since the bad ending happened it meant the big bad or final boss called the Ash God survived ruling over the world, Ren's final fight in his second life was against that being, and it was a,
"Spectacular success."
It was a surprise even to Ren who was considered talentless in his past life to succeed, but he managed somehow,
though…
'The world was destroyed after that fight, so spectacular does fit well, but success does not…'
There wasn't anything living left on the planet before the fight anyways and his comrades who he had fought and built connections with, had died,
'That bastard was really…'
Ash God, realizing they couldn't win against Ren, decided to go MAD, destroying the world and blowing it up like a certain tyrant alien named similarity to a freezer,
And thus the journey ended and he was here given a second chance.
'It's so beautiful, maybe it's the afterlife…'
Ren shook his head in denial, firstly because he believed he didn't deserve to go to the afterlife and secondly because…
[NOTIFICATION]
"Therapists don't follow you to the afterlife right?"
…
'Typical to a transmigration story, a journey such as mine included something called a 'System', it took on aspects of video games, having things like your level, stats, and most importantly a comprehensive reward system.'
'Or it should have been like that….'
The reward system was missing, in any story such an aspect would be the difference between getting killed and surviving,
'Doesn't the main character always pull something out of their ass because of the system and survive?'
Like when the main character gets a 'second chance' after being killed or they gain a massive boost in power at a decisive moment,
'Though, didn't I get my second chance too?'
Ren turned back to the floating system window that showed the notification, moving his hand and tapping the window in the air it expanded creating a familiar sight,
A message interface reminiscent of a messaging app you would find on Earth,
Ms. Star: [I'm about to ….]
Mr. Night: [Really? I know you can…]
It all started with his 2nd life when he had just regained all his memories from Earth, a Window popped up and he could message a person,
At first Ren believed it to be a god or a constellation you would see in a Korean Webnovel, but it wasn't that at all, instead this person seemed to have been another reincarnated soul just like him but in a different world instead of the Abyss,
Thousands upon thousands of messages have been exchanged between Ren and this person,
But Ren never found out their name, although ironic, they formed a close bond because they didn't know who the other was, often referred to by the title 'Ms. Star' or that's what they wanted him to call them, he found support and encouragement in their words similar to a therapist.
'Is it a she or he?'
That was one thing Ren was confused about at the start, even though they referred to themselves as 'Ms.' the way they talked seemed more like a male friend one would joke with,
'But eventually, I gave her the benefit of the doubt..'
'In anycase I should check what she sent me'
Ms. Star: [Mr. Night… I failed]
Ren's eyes narrowed, the last messages they exchanged was when he was about to fight the Ash God, Ms. Star was about to do something similar for her world,
'Then shouldn't she be dead?'
Ren focused on his thoughts spelling them out in his mind as they appeared in a message box,
Mr. Night: [You tried your best right? That's what matters. Where are you now?]
Ms. Star: [I'm in a forest with emerald trees…I thought it was the afterlife but it seems I'm too perf-]
Ignoring the rest Ren's eyes twitched looking around, but finding only trees around him,
'Forest? Like this one? Did she…?'
Mr. Night: [Well if it makes you feel any better I died too.]
A shocked emoji was sent, yes there are emojis as well, as Ms. Star spat out a quote that she had recently taken a liking to using,
Ms. Star: [Failure is the mother of learning, though a setback now in the futur- Wait how are you talking then?!]
I chuckle at her response,
Mr. Night: [If I'm sent to another world once, can't I be sent another time, I'm also in a forest… we might meet.]
Ms. Star: [Meet? Be wary as thine eyes may fall in love at first sight upon my-]
Mr. Night: [Yea…talk to you later..]
She merely sent a thumbs up emoji as our chat ended,
…
His walk turned into a light run as Ren found that there really wasn't anything around except forest trees,
'Maybe I should've just stayed where I was..'
The thought came to him as he felt slightly tired,
'Lets.. take a break..'
The tiredness showed Ren how weak he had gotten compared to his past life, but despite that, Ren felt that his current body was pretty good as he considered 3 factors,
'Firstly this body is much better than my past life in both physical and magical talent.'
During his time in the Abyss Ren found it hard to even walk for extended durations let alone running, his mind also had a hard time remembering things such as martial arts or magical spells,
For the magical aspects, although Ren didn't know how well this brain could learn things, the fact that he could somewhat feel the mana in the air was an incredible start,
'In my last life I couldn't feel mana until a whole year after I regained all my memories'
Ren had to retrieve a certain item in order to feel and use it, and it was quite the journey,
'Never again…'
In any case although he was worried about his sickly pale skin, the body's talent was pretty high up there,
'Next, even though this body is completely new to me I feel very used to it.'
When getting transmigrated, the body could be sent with the soul but in Ren's situation only his soul moved while his body was completely unfamiliar to him,
Be it differences in height, leg strength, or hand eye correlation, anyone can see how important this was to a person who survived through fighting.
'Unlike my first life where my memories came back gradually, this life my soul was sent completely naked and inexperienced!'
'But even so, I feel like I been using this body for many years"
Of course I won't be pulling off impressive Heavenly Phoenix Sword Dances anytime soon but I will be able to block, parry, and thrust
'And lastly, I now know my limit.'
Though it's only my running limit, having experience from my past life, I can infer about how much I probably could and couldn't do.
Sitting down and taking a rest Ren next decided to look at his system, back in the Abyss it gave him his stats and level, but when he opened it, his eyes widened,
'It's… broken?'
The floating window that worked fine just before he died and presently with the messaging function, now had cracks all over it when opening the other functions,
"Hmmm, you win some you lose some"
If it didn't work, there wasn't much Ren could do about it. After resting for a couple of minutes and taking in the bright sunlight, Ren stood up looking around,
"What the hell is this place anyways…"
"Where am I?"
Ren paused at the voice,
'What the? Am I hearing something, or is someone..'
He slowly turned looking at the tree he had just leaned on, a girl with light hazel hair and dull golden eyes peaked out from the other side, but what catches Ren's eye is the wooden staff next to her indicating her status as a mage.
"Hell-"
As he was about the give his greeting the girl raised the wooden staff, a head sized magic circle shimmering the color green,
'Magic circle… that's green…'
'Shit! It's aimed at me!'
Ren quickly unsheathed his blade with his left hand in a reverse grip, the flat of the blade pressed against his left forearm acting like make-shift armguard
BOOM!
Ren was pushed back several meters tumbling ungracefully across the forest grass, he gripped the sword with his right hand as well, pushing it as deep into the ground as he possibly could in order to slow his slide,
'That spell…It only pushed me?'
If it was a wind blade, even with the way Ren blocked the other parts of this body would have been hit.
'That means, she only wants to incapacitate me…'
"Wait! Don't attack me!"
His sword still embedded in the ground, Ren quickly raised his arms, he looked ahead at the girl, her eyes cold, holding the staff with both arms. The stance she took indicated her warriness and her experience as a mage.
"Who are you?"
Her voice was soft and quiet, yet it could be clearly heard by Ren, he smiled trying to seem as amicable as he possibly could.
'English? She's actually speaking English?'
"Ren.. my name is Ren.."
The girl's eyes widen as she seemingly recognized the language, lowering her head she looked at the staff in her grip before moving it into a standing position facing away from Ren as she stared at him with an apologetic expression,
"I'm.. sorry for that."
Ren smiled in response,
"It's okay, what's your name miss?"
She stared for a couple moments before her mouth opened,
"My name is Aria."
|CONDITIONS ARE MET|
Our eyes both widen as they see the large floating rectangular window,
|INITIATING ATLAS|
Ren's broken window, blue in color is absorbed into the floating window, while a window gold in color and similarly broken flows out of Aria into the large rectangular window.
|.|
|..|
|...|
|....|
|.....|
|...|
|FATE DETECTED|
|SEARCHING SOLUTION|
|SOLUTION FOUND|
|SOLUTION & PROBLEM COINSIDE|
|FATED CONDITION REVEALED|
|ACQUIRING STATUS|
|2%|
|3%|
|6%|
|12%|
|24%|
|30%|
|48%|
|60%|
|72%|
|80%|
|93%|
|98%|
|STATUS ACQUIRED|
|Welcome to the Atlas System!|
With that, like how the big fish eat small fish, their broken systems were absorbed by the larger system before they could even react, but that wasn't the least of their concerns it was instead the floating text they saw above each other's heads
|Ms. Star|
|Mr. Night|
They stared at each other for a couple moments before pointing with surprised expressions.
"Why…"
"How…"
"ARE YOU HERE?!", they said in unison.